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Latest Smilers News from Royal Mail
Royal Mail has released images of their latest Generic Stamp sheets and
Commemorative Stamp sheets which go on sale later this year and we are
able to share the following images with you as provided by Royal Mail. In
addition to the Thaipex Sheet featured earlier this month and which
goes on sale on August 3, Royal Mail have released initial images of the Italia
2009 generic stamp sheet which goes on sale on 21 October and a Monacophil
2009 sheet which is due for release on 4 December 2009 (image
embargoed until August). Two new
Commemorative Stamp sheets are planned for the autumn, the first due on
September 18th celebrates the 150th Anniversary of Big Ben whilst
the 800th Anniversary of the Cambridge University is the subject of
the Commemorative Stamp Sheet due out on 7 October 2009. (01/07)
Italia 2009 - 21 October 2009
Big Ben - 18 September
2009
Cambridge University - 7 October 2009
Latest Smilers News from Bletchley Park
Post Office
For us footie-fans the cricket season sometimes
feels interminable. Not so for the folks at Bletchley Park Post Office who
have just announced their 9th Cricketing Smilers sheet so far this summer.
The sheet was issued to commemorate the opening match at the restored
cricket ground at Sheffield Park, Sussex and features a cap, as
worn by WG Grace, in Earl of Sheffield's colours, when he played at the
park.
Also available is a rather nice cover bearing the stamp/label and
featruing the man himself, WG Grace. (30/06)
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ThematiX Smilers Sheet
A new National Thematic Exhibition - ThematiX - is to be staged
at Harlequins Rugby Club at Longhorn Drive, Twickenham, Middlesex, on
26-27 June 2009. To mark the event the organisers are issuing a limited
Edition (75) Themed Smilers sheet available at the show priced £19.95 or
if any are left over afterwards at £25.00. For further information please
contact John Horsley of County Auctions.(24/06)
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40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing -
Take 2
George Kreisler (Xmerimental Marketing/Artizan) has
produced another overprinted themed sheet to commemorate the 40th Anniversary
of First Manned Moon Landing in 1969. We understand 39 sheets are
available from Rushstamps priced £58.50 (Ref: X-41) from a limited
printing of 40 sheets. This sheet will be catalogued by us, ref: TS-350.
(24/06)
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... And Two New Sheets from
Benham.
Currently on sale at the Benham website are two new
Business Customised Stamp Sheets. The first celebrates Man's
attempts at flight, from the earliest days up to and including the Centenary
of Louis Bleriot 1909 powered cross-Channel flight (Product Code:
GBS0105). A numbered Limited
Edition of 500, the sheet should be available from 25th July. The second
sheet celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the first Manned Moon Landing
in 1969 (Product Code: GBS0104), again a limited edition of 500 sheets.
(18/06)
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....A New Sheet from Buckingham...
Spotted in their latest edition of cover lover is a new
Business Sheet from Buckingham Covers celebrating the 70th Anniversary
of the Auxiliary Fire Service. No more information available at the
moment but as soon as we have some you will be the second to know.
(18/06)
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... A New Sheet from
Westminster...
The Westminster Collection is currently selling a British
Anniversaries Business sheet although you will have to look very
carefully to find it! As usual there is little information forthcoming
from Westminster/Harry Allen regarding this sheet, but if it follows the
pattern of recent issues this will be a promotional item designed to tempt
their customers to sign up for a smilers cover series featuring these
stamps and labels. You can currently order this sheet for a reasonable
£9.99 by entering the following sheet code in the serach box at http://www.westminstercollection.com
The sheet stock code is: J35/950A/0 and there is is no illustration
on the website. (18/06)
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A New Sheet from Bradbury...
Adrian Bradbury has advised of a new Business sheet due
out in July, this time produced in association with the British Postal
Museum and Archive appropriately entitled Delivering the Mail. Adrian Bradbury's
latest sheet is from a limited printing of 1000 sheets and is numbered 39 in Adrian's History of Britain
Series. It is also the first in a planned series of stamp sheets to be
issued annually in association with the BPMA. Sheets are currently
on sale at www.bfdc.co.uk, the last
sheet announced by Adrian has already sold out and is not due for issue for
another month! (18/06)
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Thaipex - Update
Update: Mike Shepherd writes
"Re the 'small' sheets of 10 for Thaipex - RM also
made these available at last years Beijing Expo. However the normal (x20)
sheet was just a 'doubled-up' version of the sheets of ten, so one can
create the smaller sheet by guillotining the big one down the middle. I
suspect the Thai one will turn out to be the same."
Thanks Mike for this feedback. It seems obvious now you
point it out! (18/06)
Further to the earlier feature re: Tahipex (see 05/06),
contrary to the statement that this sheet will only be available in
sheetlets of 10v, it now emerges that this information was wrong despite
our checking this with Royal Mail. Royal Mail have now confirmed that the
illustrated sheetlet will be available only at Thaipex itself, the sheets
available to purchase from Tallents House will be the conventional A4
horizontal format sheets of 20v. So two sheets to collect not one
and the A5 sheet is bound to be available in much smaller quantities so
one to track down if you can.
(10/06)
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Journey to the Moon - 40th Anniversary
of first Moon Landing
Further to the snippet on the 5th June we are now able to
share with you the final image for the Royal Mail Commemorative Stamp
Sheet commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the first manned Moon landing
in 1969. The sheet is due for issued on 21 July 2009 and will be catalogued as CSS-004.
(10/06)
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40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing
George Kreisler (Xmerimental Marketing/Artizan) has
produced an overprinted themed sheet to commemorate the 40th Anniversary
of the first manned moon landing in 1969. We understand 38 sheets are
available from Rushstamps priced £58.50 (Ref: X-40) from a limited
printing of 40 sheets. This sheet will be catalogued by us, ref: TS-346.
(06/06)
Sudbury Philatelic Society
Sudbury and District Philatelic Society were one of the first
Philatelic Society to recognise the potential of personalised stamps as a
means to raise funds for the society. In May 2003 they produced an
unknown number of personalised sheets of the Flowers Smilers format and
usng these stamps/labels sold numbered, illustrated postcards featuring
these personalised stamps at their 2003 meeting. This appears to have been
well received as they have repeated this format in 2005, and again in
2007.
Another two years have gone by and Sudbury and District
Philatelic Society have produced a limited number (25) of themed sheets to
coincide with their recent Philatelic meeting in Sudbury. It will be
included in our catalogue of themed sheets.
A souvenir envelope was again produced by the Sudbury and
District Philatelic Society and was one of the highlights of StampEssex
2009, held at St Peter’s, Sudbury, on Saturday 23 May 2009. The original
painting by artist Michael Odell for the envelope design was based on a
postcard of Sudbury market, published in the 1950s by Frith. The
themed smilers stamps label featured an image of the north side of Market
Hill in 1790. (06/06)
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Thaipex
Royal Mail have kindly provided us with an image of the
Taipex 09 sheet, due for issue on 3 August 2009. This was thought to be a
20v horizontal format smilers sheet similar to previous stamp show
offerings from Royal Mail. However, we have had it confirmed that it will
only be available as a 10 v sheet. As a result this will be Royal Mail's
first 10v water-activated gummed sheet and it remains to be seen whether
it will be available to buy as a pair of 10v sheets or not. (05/06)
First Glimse of the Moon Landing sheet
from Royal Mail
The Philatelic Bulletin included an image of the latest
Commemorative Stamp Sheet due for issue on 21 July to commemorate the 40th
Anniversary of the first manned Moon Landing in 1969. The image below is
courtesy of Ian Billings at Norvic as Royal Mail has not released a hi-res image of this sheet. The sheet will be catalogued as CSS-004. As
soon as we can get a better image we will replace the scan with a hi-res
image of the sheet. (05/06)
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British Wildlife - A new Direction for
Ridgewood
Ridgewood Designs are proud to announce the production of
their first Business Customised Sheet. In the past, Ridgewood (the folks
behind the Smilers Catalogue) have provided a Smilers sheet design and production service
for various customers
and we have noted the general interest and uptake of these sheets. We have
now decided to compliment our existing activities with a number of
specially designed and licensed Business Customised Sheets, to be issued
through the course of the coming year.The British Wildlife sheet represents the first
of our planned sheets and we have some exciting sheets in production. We
will be able to provide further information on these as soon as we receive
confirmation that our sheet designs have been approved by Royal Mail.
The British Wildlife sheet has been produced to coincide with Charles
Darwin's Bicentenary Year and to compliment Royal Mail's Action for
Species stamp series. It is available immediately and on-sale via eBay
through our associates who will be happy to handle all sales enquiries
directly. All our sheets will be produced in a limited quantities and we
think you will find that they compliment those from other sheet producers.
By way of an update - steady progress is being made towards the release
of the 2nd Edition of the Smilers Catalogue, hopefully later this year or
early next, ready for the International Stamp Exhibition in 2010. The work
has had to be completely re-written to include all the new sheets, types
and varieties and we are busy re-formatting, editing and extending it
prior to going to print later this year. It's just amazing how many more
sheets are around today than just two years ago. (01/06)
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... and Two more from Benham
They are coming thick and fast this month! Two further new
sheets this month, this time from Benham. The first is the the 4th sheet in their recent series of British Railway Companies
- this sheet features the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. The
second sheet features the welsh definitive sized smilers stamps - a
fitting choice for a sheet entitled Myhical Creatures. (24/05)
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Two New Business Sheets from Bradbury...
It's always a pleasure to review AG Bradbury's business
sheets, often innovative, always bright and packed with information and
detail, Adrian's latest offerings are no exception. Adrian Bradbury's
latest sheets are Nos. 38 and 43 in Adrian's History of Britain
Series. The clue here is that there are at least four more sheets in
production for later this year.
Adrian's latest pair commemorate the 125th Anniversary
of Grenwich Meridian and the Bicentenary of the Enoblement of Arthur Wellesley who was
ennobled Viscount Wellington in 1809. He was later "upgraded" to the Duke of
Wellington following the Battle of Waterloo! The later
sheet is likely to be in high demand as Adrian has only printed 250 of
this sheet. The higher production costs associated with lower printings
has forced Adrian to raise the retail price to c. £50 a sheet which is an
interesting move by Adrian. Does this point to a waning of interest in
this type of sheet, hence lower print runs, or is this just an experiment
by Adrian, following the trend set by a few private producers recently?
(16/05)
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New Smilers, our survey says .....
Today I was contacted by a market research company working
on behalf of Royal Mail and I was asked to provide them some feedback
on-line to proposals from Royal Mail for potential new Smilers
stamps. If you are a regular customer of Royal Mail chances are you
may have received a similar e-mail. This review would appear to be in
connection with a Royal Mail proposal to expand the choice of the current
range of designs sold by Royal Mail. This response from Royal Mail appears
to be a direct response to feedback from Royal Mail Key Account holders
last September and the follow-up open letter sent by Adrian Bradbury on
the way forward for Smilers. If you haven't seen these before I would be
interested to receive your feedback on this potentially interesting
development.
There are two themes being considered. Birthdays and
Overseas Mail. Six designs for each theme were evident and I share these
with you for your enjoyment. I thought we would do our own mini-poll. Send
me an e-mail ranking the birthday stamps in order of preference and
similarly the Overseas Mail in order of preference and if I find some time
from somewhere I'll report back on your views. Keep Smiling!! (15/05)
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| SM01 |
SM02 |
SM03 |
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| SM04 |
SM05 |
SM06 |
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| SM07 |
SM08 |
SM09 |
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| SM10 |
SM11 |
SM12 |
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Flying High with the Condor
Rushstamps
have available thier latest overprinted themed sheet from the Krieslar
stable based on the Red Whiite and Blue customised smilers sheet with
boader and label designs featuring the Flight of the Condor. Not the movie
but the bird! What a pity they didn't opt for the Flying High
sheet! Sheets were also available via eBAy from the GB Stamp Centre
although availability from that source is limited. (13/05)
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Three New Dr. Who sheets from the The
Stamp Centre
The
Stamp Centre have released three new Dr. Who themed Business
Customised stamp sheets to compliment their already considerable catalogue
of Dr. Who stamp sheets.
The first sheet fills a gap in an otherwise complete
series featuring the various incarnations of the Doctor from the early
black-and-white episodes to the current day. The second new sheet
surprisingly features the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) - the first
incarantion of Tom Baker as the Doctor appeared in 2004 entitled the 4th
Doctor (see also BC-028 in the catalogue). Finally the third sheet features the current Doctor (soon to be
regenerated we hear) with co-star Catherine Tate (Donna) from the most
recent series. Printings of all numbered sheets limited to 1000 each. (09/05)
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Elm Park Regeneration Partnership
The Elm Park Regeneration Committee will be issuing a new
themed smilers sheet on 6th June 2009 to mark the 2009 Elm Park Fiesta
event. Fifty sheets will be printed with c. 40 of these split in half and
sold as half sheets. As in previous issues, the remaining ten sheets will
be sold as whole sheets at a premium to smilers sheet colelctors to raise
money for the Fiesta event. The sheet depicts a steam train which
apparently represents the first train to pass through the Elm Park station
in May 1935. When I querried the choice of the Northern Ireland
smilers sheet as the landscape for their latest (7th) sheet they provided
a very honest reply - "The smiler sheet format was chosen largely
because we liked the green countryside and because it was new! We also
hope that lots of Northern Irelander's will visit Elm Park." (06/05)
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Buckingham's Hitachi 395 Business
Customised Sheet
Buckingham covers have released details of their fourth
Business sheet this month. It has been issued to commemorate the
introduction of the Hitachi 395 trains from St. Pancras Station. "The
arrival of the fastest commuter trains in Britain will slash journey times
considerably for many Kent travellers. At speeds of up to 140mph, journey
time from London to Ashford will be as short as 36mins!" The
sheet is due for issue on 20th May 2009 and is the latest in Buckingham's
Platinum Edition Sheets - it will only be available to Buckingham Sheet Club
Members. (30/04)
Bletchley Park Post Office Cricketing
Themed Sheets
Bletchley Park Post Office have
got their cricketing season off to a flying start by announcing no less
than 7 planned themed smilers sheets this summer to be issued between 6th
May 2009 and 12th September 2009 to commemorate certain cricketing
calendar highlights. They have produced a preview
flyer which describes the sheets and provides an advance order form. Although
not mentioned, each sheet is from a limited printing of 50 sheets and in
keeping with past practice we expect these to be numbered on the reverse
by BPPO. (27/04)
A hat trick of new Business Customised Sheets
from Buckingham Covers
Featured in a recent
edition of Buckingham's Cover Lover magazine were two Business
Customised Sheets, due out in July. Also, another sheet has been spotted
by an eagle-eyed contributor on Buckingham's website making a total of
three new sheets from Tony Buckingham.
These are:
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150th
Anniversary of the Birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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90th Anniversary of First Translantic
Flights by Alcock and Brown
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100th Anniversary of Louis Bleriot Cross Channel
Flight
Nice to see the re-appearance of
the Lion and Shield stamp on the Conan Doyle gummed sheet. We make it
seven new Business sheets announced this month (plus a
"raft" of other sheets) from various sources, in the space of
the past 13 days or so - that's about one every two days since the 8th
April for Business sheets alone. Do you think this is what Gordon meant by
Quantitive
Easing? (21/04)
Royal Mail sub-contract's out Smiler's
Printing
Royal Mail would appear to have
sub-contracted out some of the label printing associated with their
Smilers sheet production to Cornwall based printing company, St. Ives
Print. St. Ives have, for some time, been Royal Mail's sole print
supplier for posters, advertising and other business related materials
i.e. everything except stamps. Royal Mail's use of a sub-contracted
printer was first noticed when differing order references started to
appear on some Smilers sheets about a month ago. The familar numercial
order number normally appears in the bottom left hand corner of the
sheet. However, recently it has appeared supplemented with the
Smilers stamp code (e.g. sm15) - see Royal Mail
Smilers Coding for a full list of these codes.
From what we have been told by one well-known stamp
dealer, the sheets with the SM numbers are printed by St. Ives Print and
they have experienced part orders supplied with a combination of both
numbering systems. I sincerely hope that Royal Mail will step up to the
plate and rectify this and ensure that the application of their
numbering system is at least consistent between the two printing
centres. (18/04)
Mythical Beasties!
Adrian
Bradbury has come up with another stunner, this time featuring specially
commissioned illustrations of mythical creatures by Malcolm Greensmith on
his History of Britain Series No. 37 - Mythical Creatures and
Heraldry - the connection being that many of the mythical creatures
feature on heraldic devices. To compliment these images the
sheet border design features reproductions of three GB stamp sets: English
Heraldry; Scottish Heraldry and the Queen's Beasts set. The sheet is due
out in May ahead of the planned Royal Mail Mythical Creatures issue due
out in June.
(17/04)
Ten of Britain's Best from No. 10
Ten great British Prime Ministers of
the 18th and 19th centuries feature on a new Business Customised Sheet
from Benham. "A fascinating and informative sheet featuring ten
British Prime Ministers, from Robert Walpole - the first to use the title
- to William Gladstone. Each label bears a contemporary portrait which is
enlarged and repeated in the sheet background together with an image of
the door to 'Number 10'. Numbered Limited Edition of 500."
The sheet is due for issue on the 28th May
2009, the
250th anniversary of the birth of William Pitt the Younger. (17/04)
New Themed Smilers Sheets due in April
Three
new sheets have been announced so far this month.
Rushstamps have released a new themed smilers sheet
entitled Earl Shilton Rocks! The new Earl Shilton Scout Group Sheet
features 20 x 1st Class Harry Potter stamps and commemorates the Centenary
Year (1909-2009) of
the Hinckley District Scout Council. Sheets are available from Rushstamps.
The North East Philatelic Association, on the occasion of their 60th
convention which will take place later this month in Redcar have produced
two sheets featuring the lifeboat Zetland as she was in about 1864
and as she is today in the museum at Redcar. The pre-issue scans have been
supplied by NEPA and will be overpinted in blue with the wording : NEPA
2009, 60th Convention, Redcar, Home of Lifeboat Zetland.
A commemorative cover featuring these Smilers stamps/labels is also
planned. Further details available from Geoff
Reynolds. (16/04)
Trendy Business Customised Stamp
Sheets
Royal Mail certainly seem to be on to a winner with their
Business Customised Stamp Sheets if the number of recent sheets appearing is anything to go
by! During the five year period January 2002
to January 2007, around 100 sheets were issued by various companies and
organisations or expressed another way, an average of just over 1 and a
half sheets per month over that period. Today that number has
quadrupled to around 6 sheets per month in just over two years. With an average selling price
of between £25 and £30 per sheet, collecting one of every sheet produced
is going to cost you a minimum of c. £2,000 per year, more if you include
some of the more expensive low print number sheets that have been
appearing recently.
We thought you might be interested to see the production
trends over the period since January 2007 which shows the average number
of sheets produced per month stabilising at around six per month, Our
question - is this sustainable in the current economic climate? Our fear?
In these troubled times of low consumer spending activity will the
Business Customised Sheet producers take a leaf out of the Governments
book and try to "print" their way out of a problem. Let's hope not.
(10/04)
Spring has arrived - Victorian
Garden Flowers
AG Bradbury (www.bfdc.co.uk)
has announced a new Business Customised Stamp sheet entitled Victorian
Garden Flowers, the latest BCS sheet in the History of Britain
Series (No.36), although, to be honest, I do struggle to see the
connection with British History! From a limited printing of 1,000 sheets,
the format follows the now well-established A4 portrait,
self-adhesive BCS format bearing 10 x DS Flower Smilers stamps set
against a background of Victorian era botanical illustrations which are
also the subject of the 10 photo labels.
Notwithstanding its loose association with British
History, we think the sheet makes a welcome addition to the recent BCS
issues and its spring-like appeal should prove popular and another
winner for Brad. (08/04)
New Business Customised Stamp Sheet
from Planet Prints
Planet Prints
have produced another in their colourful series of promotional Business
Customised Stamp Sheets, this edition features a delightful print of a
Bullfinch and Apples as a back-drop with photo-images of various British
birds. With a very limited printing of just 100 sheets, should we expect
these to be very "cheap cheap"? The image we have is a
pre-production design so this may be subject to change. Based on past
issues availability should be via eBay and directly from Plant Prints. We
hear through the grapevine that some production problems have delayed this
sheet but we understand it should be available later this month. (08/04)
Three New Themed Smilers
Three
new Themed Smilers have appeared during March; all produced by the
same (private) producer and currently being marketed jointly by the GB
Stamp Centre and Rushstamps, although the former appears to be
out of stock of at least two of these sheets at the time of reporting.
They all comprise themed customised Red White and Blue 20v
landscape-format Smilers sheets with photo labels to match the theme and
edge-to-edge overprinting. We understand 25 sheets of each have been
produced. Further details and illustartions on the Mar-09
page of themed Smilers new issues. (08/04)
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130th Anniversary of the Birth of Einstein (TS-336)
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170th Anniversary of the Birth of Cézanne (TS-337)
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Easter 2009 - Rembrandt (TS-338)
